You can learn a lot from your lovers, but-for the most part-you get to keep your friends longer, and you learn more from them.

…there is no nakedness that compares to being naked in front of someone for the first time.

I believe in plot, in development of character, in the effect of the passage of time, in a good story - better than something you might find in the newspaper. And I believe a novel should be as complicated and involved as you're capable of making it.

It's a no-win argument - that business of what we're born with and what our environment does to us. And it's a boring argument, because it simplifies the mysteries that attend both our birth and our growth.

I've always been a fan of the 19th century novel, of the novel that is plotted, character-driven, and where the passage of time is almost as central to the novel as a major minor character, the passage of time and its effect on the characters in the story.

Watch out for people who call themselves religious; make sure you know what they mean - make sure they know what they mean!

Kids are perfect people till grownups get their hands on them.